


Casual travel

by rabiddog



Series: DSMP [7]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Everyone is Dead, Gen, Hurt Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Hurt Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Hurt TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Karl Jacobs Needs a Hug, Karl Jacobs-centric, Mild Gore, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Time Traveler Karl Jacobs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 00:40:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28804461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rabiddog/pseuds/rabiddog
Summary: Karl's fingers made nimble work of turning back the time – both metaphorically and physically.-Karl couldn't really remember the exact amount of times he'd watched the server crumble and fall - tip over the edge into an endless cycle of destruction and lead to countless deaths, but it didn't matter.He'd get it right the next time. He was sure of it.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Karl Jacobs, Karl Jacobs & Everyone, Karl Jacobs & Sapnap, Karl Jacobs & TommyInnit
Series: DSMP [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2079465
Comments: 6
Kudos: 265
Collections: Completed stories I've read





	Casual travel

**Author's Note:**

> CW // Mild gore / bloody themes

Oozing, ruby red liquid filled up Karl's vision, splashing periodically across the (once blank) canvas of his searching eyes. It was like a stain he just couldn't get rid of – all permanent and eternal – something that vaguely resembled the many lives he'd lived, cherished, and expired. Though apparently, the expiry date for this particular existence had reached its end. 

"I'm sorry," He breathed, regret dripping from the tip of his aching, heavy tongue. 

His mouth felt dry, far too arid and desiccated for him to want to continue speaking, to continue pleading and begging for his fallen comrades to just accept his repeated apologies. He wanted them to forgive him, forgive him for failing again. Again, again, again. 

It was a repetitive cycle that he couldn't free himself from, a blunder of eternities and lives he'd both lived and had yet to live. 

Though alas, perhaps he didn't need to speak any further. Perhaps he could keep his lips sealed, and his eyes squeezed shut as to block away the dastardly sight of mangled bodies and mutilated framework. It was as if their decimated forms had made up a gruesome flower field of reds, reds, reds. 

All crimson and cardinal, all cherry and cerise. 

Karl's heart gave a little jolt as he stepped along the crumbling pathway of chipped oak and a few pieces of fragmented cobble here and there. The prime path – something that once had been a large, significant part of L'Manburg, had been tinted into something _wrong_. 

Bile rose in the brunette's throat. 

Why had everything gone so badly once more? Why had he ruined this world - ruined another lifetime filled with blooming memories and cheerful laughter? Why couldn't he have done more to stop the war and bloodshed? Why? Why? Why? 

Why did he have to watch his friends die all over again? 

\- 

_Sapnap gave a weak groan as he leaned into Karl's side, a crimson trickle rolling down his quivering chin. He tried not to show too much emotion, tried not to let the weakness flash across his pale face, but it was hard – hard not to let anything reveal as he took his last, dying breaths._

_"I tried, y'know?" Sapnap murmured, head resting heavily against his smaller friend's knobbly joint. His breaths had begun to come out a little weaker, making his chest rise and fall at a faster pace to try to keep up._

_"I know." Karl sighed lightly, letting his arm wrap around the dark-haired man's side. There was nothing else he could do but offer comfort in Sapnap's final moments. "You did good, Sappy. So good."_

_Sapnap hummed, voice quieted, and significantly dimmer. "But it wasn't enough."_

_A few beats of heavy silence rested over them, draping gently over their shaking shoulders, as if their watchful God was trying to provide even the tiniest slice of reprieve. It was like a blessing in disguise, and both men melted into it._

_Karl let out a shaky breath, his rackety ribcage giving a little quake as he did so._

_"I know. I know, Sappy."_

_Not a single breath had left Sapnap's lips after that moment, and Karl couldn't help the tear that had slipped down his flushed cheek._

__

\- 

_"You have to help them, you have to- you have to help them, please, please, Karl-!"_

_Karl swallowed roughly, dark eyes glancing over towards the loudmouth blonde, the blonde who always seemed to have a quick temper and childish tactics, the blonde who seemed significantly meeker as he was left bleeding to death._

_'I'll do it!' Was what the brunette had wanted to proclaim as he rushed over to fight alongside Quackity and Fundy, Tubbo and Ponk, but it hadn't come out like that. Of course, it hadn't._

_"I can't."_

_Tommy's eyes widened somewhat, disbelief shining in those baby-blue orbs._

_Betrayal was the primary emotion splashed across his blood-splattered face, betrayal, hurt, confusion – all of the emotions visible that made Karl's stomach churn uncomfortably with his own regret and remorse. He wanted to take back what he'd said, but he couldn't._

__Rule one – never get involved with the final war._ _

_"Why- why not? Karl? Why-"_

_Karl let out a breath, closed his eyes for a moment, and then turned away._

_Even if he tried to explain it, even if he tried to take a second to explain to Tommy just _why_ he couldn't join the fighting, it wouldn't be worth it, because Karl had been in this exact situation before. _

_Tommy wouldn't live long enough to hear even the start of it._

__

\- 

_"Will you fix it next time?"_

_Karl stared down to the shattered mask in his hands – stared down towards the symbolic, taunting, smiley face with those lifeless, soulless eyes and that tormenting, haunting smile. His hands were shaking, shaking enough that he had to let it go._

_It hit the ruby-covered ground with a heavy thump._

_"Yes."_

_Karl's gaze drew upwards, matching with green, green, green orbs._

_Dream nodded, a playful smile tugging at his cracked lips, and his expression was surprisingly light despite the sword slicing deep into his chest. He seemed to have already accepted his fate – seemed to already know something that Karl didn't._

_"Heh, good luck then. You'll need it."_

_His words were more accurate than either could even begin to explain._

__

A sigh bumbled from Karl's lips as he pulled a pocket watch from his hoodie, the _familiar_ , though somewhat dulled, metal made hope shine within his chest – festering and growing until an _unfamiliar_ smile had dug home on his face. 

His fingers made nimble work of turning back the time – both metaphorically and physically. 

It was an ordeal he'd done countless times, countless attempts at making a happier life within a broken country. His cherished book kept the dates, kept the records of how long a universe had lasted before he'd had to turn back time before he'd had to erase everything that he knew. 

It hurt. Each time it hurt, and it hurt, and it made the pit growing within Karl's stomach even deeper than the last, but it was also _so_ worth it. 

As the particles bubbled and blistered around his phasing body, as the joyous laughter from a younger, happier George and Dream rang around a new world, Karl let himself relax. 

_"Ooh, we should have a building right in the middle of the lake! Wouldn't that be cool?"_

_"Bad? Do you want to help us? Hey- maybe Sapnap can too! Right?"_

_"Let's go mining together!"_

Maybe this time it would work out. Maybe this time Karl would get it right. 

He just had to believe, right?

**Author's Note:**

> CC: [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.me/rabiddogs)  
> Twitter: [Wilbyz](https://twitter.com/wiIbyz)


End file.
